How often should I feed my anemone?

[WhitePanther93]

This is my rainbow bubble tip anemone
I’ve had him since October last year, and I can’t say I’ve seen much growth on him. If anything it looks smaller than it use to.

here’s an old pic:

As you can see it’s only about an inch to just under 2” not including tentacles

i would love it if he was big enough to host my clownfish

does feeding them accelerate their growth?
It wasn’t till recently that I started to give it a small chunk of shrimp every few days and to me it started to look much healthier after doing so. Honestly the little guy stayed at the bottom lower par area of my tank for so long I think it caused itself to atrophy.
Though every so often I do see it kinda flopped over the rock, and the tentacles get really fat and stubby. (I’ll post a pic the next time I see this)

Parameters as of a few minutes ago:

alkalinity: 10.4 (before dose of soda ash)
Calcium: 462
Nitrates:19.4
Phosphates: 0.15
ph: 8.4 (probably a bit higher than really is because ph was taken after a soda ash dose)

no magnesium because I’m still waiting on new Hanna checker reagents.

 

[KrisReef]

Tricky issue.
The best thing for that nem would be for your clownfish to take up residence in it. Someone on here said that they fed their nem small chunks of fish cubes so that the clown would swim into the nem to feed. Once the clown moves in you will not have to feed the nem, the clown will take care of it and it will thrive.

Otherwise, I would occassionally spot feed if the current in the tank does not bring food to the nem already? These are made to feed on tiny planktonic items and once a year they have a Christmas feast on a shrimp. Feeding large amounts often can make the nam sick.

I once put a baitfish in a wild anemone and it spit it out. Didn't want anything to do with a meal that wasn't fresh I guess.

Good luck getting your clown to recongnise home.

 

[Jekyl]

Nothing large. Maybe some mysis once a week.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Following

 

[n1ng]

I feed my Magnifica 1-2x weekly. Small pieces of shrimp about a dime in diameter, 1/8in thickness. I find it really helps with growth.

For RBTA, I found that mysis is fine. Started with one, It didn't get larger than 5in diameter before splitting. All the clones are the same or smaller before splitting.

 

[Jekyl]

Alkalinity is also higher than I like. Try to keep mine in the 8.5 range

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Tricky issue.
The best thing for that nem would be for your clownfish to take up residence in it. Someone on here said that they fed their nem small chunks of fish cubes so that the clown would swim into the nem to feed. Once the clown moves in you will not have to feed the nem, the clown will take care of it and it will thrive.

Otherwise, I would occassionally spot feed if the current in the tank does not bring food to the nem already? These are made to feed on tiny planktonic items and once a year they have a Christmas feast on a shrimp. Feeding large amounts often can make the nam sick.

I once put a baitfish in a wild anemone and it spit it out. Didn't want anything to do with a meal that wasn't fresh I guess.

Good luck getting your clown to recongnise home.

Not to take away from original post but you say once clown host nem you don't really need to feed nem (I had my nem since Nov dec, only last month or two it's out of cave and clownfish is hosting)
My nem looks pretty happy but it's still tiny and no growth since introduction, thanks

 

[Jekyl]

My nems are huge. Started with 2 and now have 7. Largest is not probably 12" acrossed. I have never fed them directly. They catch what they catch and the lighting/parameters do the rest

 

[jas111]

Might depend on the type of nems you are keeping but I never feed my bubble tips directly. The get what ever the can catch when I fed the fish.

 

[exnisstech]

These are the ones in the spare chamber of my sump.

These were removed from my DT when they started wandering and are sitting in a spare chamber of my sump. They are 4" - 6" when inflated. Have never been fed and lighting is a Chinese black box. I started with 3 nems and at one point I had 47 and took them to the LFS for credit. They have since settled down and are rarely splitting. I wish I could offer suggestions but it must be something with the nem or the water.

 

[WhitePanther93]

So it’s only been shy of a couple of weeks, but I think it’s making some progress

The bubbles have gotten a bit bigger and at mor pronounced. From here out I'm only targeting feeding him once a week

I might keep updating this thread as it keeps making progress.